Spain Travel – Asturias:
The Tito Bustillo Prehistoric Cave and a Scenic
Walk in Ribadesella
Well, my time in the high mountains of the Asturian
Picos de Europa was over. I checked out of the
Hotel La Cepada, my cozy mountain abode with the
picturesque views of the town of Cangas de Onís,
got into my car and drove northwards towards the
Atlantic coastline. After two days with rather poor
weather, the skies were clearing up nicely and a
gorgeous sunny day was in store for me.
The entrance to the Cueva de Tito Bustillo prehistoric
cave
To get exposed to some of the prehistoric sights
in Asturias I stopped at the Cave of Tito Bustillo,
which is world-renowned for its Paleolitic art.
Located on the western bank of the Sella River in
the small town of Ribadesella, this cave was discovered
by a group of adventurous young men in 1968. One
of these young men, Tito Bustillo, died just days
afterwards in a mountaineering accident and the
cave was named in his honour. I joined a tour group
to get a better understanding of this unique ancient
heritage site.
The cave paintings in the Tito Bustillo Cave
The Cueva de Tito Bustillo is a karst cave that
is entered through a main gallery with a length
of 540 metres. Then there is a junction with a path
leading off to the right to the original entrance
of the cave while to the left we reached the room
of paintings. Our expert guide pointed out various
cave paintings of horses, cows, bisons, deer and
reindeer, all animal species that would have lived
here in the Paleolithic area.
Amazing pre-historic paintings at the Cave of Tito
Bustillo
The colours include purple, raw sienna and black,
and some of them are still quite vivid many thousands
of years after their creation. Our guide explained
the difference between paintings of different epochs.
Another section of the cave includes paintings of
female vulvas, a prehistoric celebration of fertility.
The cave paintings in the Cueva de Tito Bustillo
are between 12,000 and 24,000 years old and they
are of similar quality and importance as the caves
of Altamira and Lascaux.
View of the harbour of Ribadesella
Now back out in the gorgeous sun, I drove back
across the bridge over the Sella River and looked
for the tourism office of the town of Ribadesella.
I immediately took a liking to this town, which
is set against the foothills of the Picos de Europa
mountains, and nestled against the banks of the
Sella River which forms a large bend here before
flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. Not surprisingly,
the town has chosen the slogan “The Beach
of the Picos de Europa”, a perfect description
of this scenic place.
Ribadesella is a very pretty town
The young lady at the Tourism Office gave me a
two-minute summary of the town of Ribadesella and
equipped me with all sorts of brochures that would
allow me to go on a self-guided tour of town. Ribadesella
is a small town of about 6,300 people that looks
back on a long history. As the Tito Bustillo Cave
illustrates, this area has been inhabited for tens
of thousands of years.
Colourful houses in Ribadesella
Even the ancient Greeks already talked about settlements
in the area. Naturally, the Romans colonized this
region as well, and during the Middle Ages, Ribadesella
became an important post for maritime trade, particularly
salt, an indispensable ingredient in salting fish.
Salmon fishing also was an important economic contributor
in the area. The town’s location on the Cantabrian
Sea at the mouth of the Sella River proved to be
highly strategic throughout the centuries.
Stone house in Ribadesella
In 1865 finally a wooden bridge was built over
the Sella River that was replaced by an iron bridge
which ended up being destroyed in 1937 during the
Spanish Civil War. The concrete bridge we see today
connects the western bank of the town and its long
beach with the historic downtown area on the eastern
side of the river. One of the biggest attractions
in town is the International Descent of the Sella
(Descenso Internacional del Sella), a popular canoe
race that is held annually on the first weekend
of August. The race begins in Arriondas and finishes
in Ribadesella, an event that attracts thousands
of outdoor adventurers every year.
The narrow streets of Ribadesella
I started my walk and headed into the narrow streets
of the town’s centre and within a few minutes
I had arrived at the Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene,
built in 1936. The downtown area is very pretty,
with narrow, cobble-stoned streets that are free
of car traffic. City hall is located in a house
made of heavy stone blocks, and numerous restaurants,
bars and shops are dot the downtown area.
The Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene
To get a better view of the town, I started walking
up the hill on the promontory that stretches out
into the ocean on the east side of town. As I strolled
further along this promenade above the town, the
views got better and better. The entire town with
its red roofs, its big winding river and its long
sandy beach on the other side of the Sella was stretching
out in front of me. In the distance the jagged silhouette
of the Picos de Europa mountains formed a hazy blue
backdrop to this stunning panorama. I simply had
to stop every 20 or 30 metres to admire the amazing
views.
The bend of the Sella River before it flows into
the Atlantic
The elevated scenic walkway above Ribadesella ended
up taking me to a promontory called “Mirador
del Guía” which overlooks the eastern
side of the Sella’s estuary with a little
chapel called “La Guía”. This
was the perfect lookout point back to the town with
the high mountains behind, down to the estuary of
the Sella River and out to the sheer infinite expanses
of the Atlantic Ocean. With these breathtaking views,
Ribadesella had officially become one of my favourite
destinations in Asturias.
The cannons at the Mirador del Guía
I walked down from the chapel on a meandering footpath
to head back into town on the riverfront boulevard.
Great views of the river were to be had from here,
and I admired a series of canoeists and kayakers
who were working out on the river. The promenade
was flanked by a series of clay murals that illustrate
the history of Ribadesella, from its prehistoric
settlements to its important role as a port town,
to today’s incarnation as one of northern
Spain’s most popular tourist towns. Even the
Prince and the Princess of Asturias vacation here…
View of the mouth of the Sella River and the Atlantic
Ocean
I strolled past several bars and cafés in
the port area to get back to my car and make it
over the bridge to the western bank of Ribadesella.
This side of town is home to a long and wide sandy
beach called Playa de Santa Marina. I sat down in
an outdoor café and enjoyed an ice cream
cone while I looked back across the river to the
elevated lookout point where I had just come from.
Playa Santa Marina, the beach of Ribadesella
One really interesting unique feature of Ribadesella
is its pretty riverfront promenade that is dotted
with historic mansions that flank the sandy beach.
These mansions, the so-called “casas indianas”,
were built around the turn of the last century by
rich emigrants who had returned home to built opulent
villas. From the 1850s onwards, many Asturians emigrated
to places such as Cuba, Mexico and Argentina to
escape poverty and seek their fortune in the New
World.
One of the many gorgeous "casas indianas"
in Ribadesella - the Hotel Restaurante Villa Rosario
Many of those emigrants that had became wealthy
and successful abroad returned to their home towns
to retire and constructed impressive mansions. Plaques
in front of the mansions explain the history of
some of these gorgeous villas. Several of the owners
had become wealthy in the Cuban tobacco trade or
in the Mexican textile industry, and these villas
were a testament to their success. Today, many of
these villas are hotels or restaurants. The four-star
Hotel Restaurante Villa Rosario, for example, is
one of the most stunning villas and offers beautiful
water views to its lucky clients.
The beautiful sandy beach of Ribadesella
Ribadesella had truly impressed me with its fantastic
location at the mouth of the river Sella. But now
it was mid-afternoon and I had to make way further
east towards my destination for the night: the “Posada
de Babel”, a family-owned hotel near the waterfront
town of Llanes.
